In the construction field, and particularly in interior construction, walls are commonly formed with a plurality of drywall sections or other materials used to construct interior walls. A wall joint is formed at a location where two wall sections meet. In order to provide a smooth, continuous wall appearance, tape must be applied to the wall joint. Tape is typically applied to wall joints with devices commonly referred to as taper tools.
Taper tools apply an adhesive to the tape and subsequently apply the adhesive and tape to a wall joint. Such adhesive is usually referred to as mud or mastic. A variety of taper tools exist in the market place, but the taper tools generally operate in a similar manner. Initially, the taper tool is used to apply the tape and mastic to a wall joint. The tape exits the tool from its first or forward end. After the taper tool reaches the top or bottom of the joint (depending on which direction the operator is applying the tape and mastic) and completes tape application for the particular wall joint, the operator activates a cutting mechanism used to cut the tape. Typically, the cutting mechanism is disposed on and behind the forward end of the taper tool. Accordingly, for the next application of tape to the wall surface, the tape must be advanced to the forward end of the taper tool. This can be performed by either manually grasping the tape and feeding the tape to the forward end or by a tape advancing assembly, which is also connected to the taper tool. The tape advancing assembly is actuatable by the operator and engages the tape to advance the leading edge of the tape toward the forward end of the taper tool. Unfortunately, advancing the leading edge of the tape in either of these manners does not provide tape with mastic applied thereto. Accordingly, the portion of the tape without mastic will not stick to the wall surface and will not provide an effective seal between wall sections.
The cutting mechanism can often create tape slivers when performing the cutting operation. Over time, the tape slivers can accumulate along the tape path and obstruct the advancement of tape along the tape path. If the tape advancement is sufficiently obstructed, a tape jam can occur in which the advancement of the tape along the tape path is halted altogether. In such a case, the operator must remove the tape from the tape guide, locate a thin component, such as a thin piece of metal, lying around the work place, insert the thin component into the tape path in an attempt to clear the jam manually, and re-insert the tape into the tape guide after the jam has been manually cleared. Location and insertion of components into the tape path can be time consuming in clearing the jam and such insertion can damage components of the taper tool.
After multiple operations of the taper tool or at the end of a work day, the taper tool may need to be cleaned. Several components of the taper tool require cleaning, but cleaning is often difficult. Such components include a filler tube and filler valve used to refill the taper tool with mastic and an ejection nozzle used to eject mastic from the taper tool onto the tape. In some taper tools, the ejection nozzle is defined by a bottom wall, side walls and a removeable cover plate closing the top of the nozzle. The cover plate is removeable to provide access to the nozzle. The filler tube and filler valve are located above the cover plate and in a front face of the taper tool. Commonly, the filler tube is not removeable by an operator, making cleaning of the filler tube and the filler valve located behind the filler tube difficult and time consuming.